Westwood targets first major

Lee Westwood from Worksop is among 18 players separated by just three strokes and in contention to take the US Open title.

Graeme McDowell was tied for the lead overnight, with Westwood only two behind as the race for the title hotted up in San Francisco.

Pacesetters Tiger Woods, Jim Furyk and David Toms all had early problems at the Olympic Club yesterday.

Woods and Furyk had two bogeys in the first five holes and Toms three, meaning 2010 champion McDowell had only to open with six straight pars to be part of a five-way tie at the top.

Alongside him on one over par were Woods, Furyk, Belgian Nicolas Colsaerts and Swede Fredrik Jacobson, who completed a superb front nine 32 with three successive birdies.

Westwood resumed in only 29th place, but with two holes to go he was up into a tie for sixth on three over.

The world number three, making his 57th attempt to win a major, birdied the fifth and seventh, bogeyed the next two, but then started for home by holing from 12 and five feet.

With Luke Donald and Rory McIlroy missing the halfway cut Westwood also had the chance to regain the number one position he last held 13 months ago, but it was winning a major that was all that really mattered to the 38-year-old from Worksop.

Westwood failed to birdie the two par fives, the 16th and 17th, but that was forgotten as he sank a 40-footer on the last for a brilliant 67.